05/24/2011

Cambria has a wonderful restaurant named Robin's that we all love to visit. This is a photo of it's sweet sign. They have a wonderful outdoor garden and the interior decor is vintage cottage style. The menu has something for everyone's taste. For me however it is always about the garden and family. Lunching with family plus adding in a lovely garden to the mix will always get me to follow my bliss on a sunny Central Coast afternoon. Since the Storybook cottage is our sometimes home, we do our day to day living closer to work. This past weekend, I noticed a robin doing a lot of visits to a nearby tree. When I gave it a closer look, this is what I found.

Curious for a closer look.....

This is what was hiding. So this is a true robin's egg blue! Mr. and Mrs. Robin wanted me out of their home and flew at me. I hope to get a picture when the eggs hatch.

This is where dad sat while I did the rest of my watering on Saturday.

See that little bird on the grass beyond the swing! He never stopped watching me water. Where's the trust? Tomorrow we leave for the Storybook house and our gardeners will be in the garden on Saturday. I will post a Do Not Disturb sign on this tree. I so do want these little robin's eggs to hatch!

I found another surprise here.

This is a finch's nest. I had this bag leaning against the wall. I watched a small bird in the corner for weeks thinking it was just going about the business of being a little bird.

Springtime surprises make the best gifts! Hugs....

I'm linking up to Wow Us Wednesday today and can't wait to meet all of you...Thanks for the invitation Kim:)

05/17/2011

This past April I visited my daughter, Christina and her family in Minnesota. She is a working artist. This is a photo of her studio. It is located in the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis. If you would like to see more of her paintings, you can go take a look at her blog.

On the second day of our visit it snowed 10 inches. I hadn't seen snow fall in years so for me I was thrilled. However only up to the time I tried to help Christina dig out.

Christina's colorful paintings are often a reflection of her own life as mother, wife, and working artist. This is an example of one of her paintings. This paintings hangs in our entry way. I feel that it says something about my life today. This lady sits surrounded by her flower garden and often I do the same in our garden.

This is my grandson Ryan. He painted this painting in a Saturday art class. Christina was his teacher. She gave the students a limited palette. This way the kids can keep it fresh.

Ryan loves to paint and draw. He gave this painting of sunflowers to me when we arrived. We shipped it in a special box for paintings of this size and had it framed at Michaels.

I will always treasure this painting! Thank you Ryan...hugs and kisses

05/11/2011

When I think of home, I see all the colors of the rainbow in my garden. Last week I hung out with my traveling hubby in Melbourne, Australia. Let me warn you, it is a very long trip. If you can get an aisle seat do it! All that matters on long flights is bathroom possibilities. Being taken hostage by a young lad who gains the aisle seat is a disaster! Once home again seeing how my little garden had grown somehow gave me great joy and peace. Security is tight when traveling international. I was pulled aside twice for a full body search. I'm a 62 year old caucasian lady. So get ready if you travel overseas to be humbled. Home sweet home.....how hard can it be? We all need to do our part? However a full body search was a surprise to me. I will travel to London in June. We will not choose LAX. Security at LAX is aggressive or is it that they are trained poorly? I'm not certain. They seemed frightened. So......time to let it go. Australians are relaxed and friendly. I loved my visit because of them. I picked up a nice cottage decorating magazine at the airport in Sydney. I can never leave without the taste of international cottage decor. The bonus is that it is written in English. Unlike USA, when they do country the animals are included as in chickens and sheep! I've begun to wish for a chicken and a pet sheep. My son, Daniel thinks this is weird. He, he... I'm wondering if my sweet Jennie wouldn't mind.

04/28/2011

I don't often go on the hunt for vintage treasures however a few weeks ago with some time to spare I headed to Old Town Upland, CA to do a little vintage hunting. I found this quilt on the floor in a forgotten corner of an antique shop. I've been wondering why it wasn't displayed in a more regal fashion. It was hiding under some other items. When I pulled it out, I couldn't put it back. I loved the colors, the pattern, and there was something else. I began to wonder about the fabric. All the flowers were made of different cotton prints. Two vendors were in the shop and we discussed the age of the quilt. They felt it probably was made during the 1920's and that the pattern is called "Flower Garden". They also wondered who could ever give up such a beautiful handmade quilt. I knew at that moment that I had asked enough questions. I made the purchase and decided to worry about restoration when I returned home. It was in need of a good soaking! As bells and whistles began to go off in my head, I wondered if they were right about the date. Google helped with the answers. I found out that I might have a Feed Sack Quilt! Next came a history lesson about feed sacks or also called grain sacks. You can go here to get the rest of the lesson. Housewives during the 1920s didn't waste anything! They used the feed sacks for aprons, dishtowels, dresses and even undies. The Great Depression was a time for frugal living and these fabrics were not wasted. Once the competing manufactures saw what was happening the prints became even more varied and pretty. My mom was in elementary school during the depression and if she were alive I'd be asking her tonight if her mom used feed sack fabric. Out of something so humble the maker of this quilt made something of great beauty. In this photo take a look at all the stitches! I'm imagining the lady who stitched this may have made it for her daughter's bed. The backing is in pink. The quilt is faded and when purchase musty smelling and some of the edging squares are missing however overall for the age it remains a thing of gently worn beauty. This is the bed it will rest on in the Storybook Cottage. It was because of the date and the name "Flower Garden Quilt" that helped in the goggle search. I grew up around sewing machines and everything handmade so to learn about the history of this quilt was a surprise to me. How about you? Did you now about feed sacks and how they were used once upon a time?

A once upon a time quilt has now found a once upon a time cottage, "Storybook Cottage."

04/10/2011

We've returned to our everyday home however the scent of Cambria-by-the-sea lingers inside of me. It's really true and I'm a believer that springtime along with bird songs and pretty flowers brings with it a new hope for everyday life. Sometimes the ho-hum of a daily routine is comforting yet spicing the month up with a trip to the Storybook Cottage definitely renews me.

What a wonderful surprise to see GREEN everywhere! Cambria has had more rainfall this year and it shows the garden seems so full of life.

The Japanese Maple on our last visit was nothing but a twig. I wondered if it was dying.

This Little Deer is but another example of life. We often have deer visits.

Here is another of our visitors. Seeing a wild turkey was so cool! We get all excited and grab cameras and wish the moment could last a bit longer.

Getting the key into the back door is always a moment of glory. Why? Two months ago after a painter took the doors down to paint them, we were locked out and wondered after our long trip what to do next. The lock was broken. The front door has a special lock and can't be opened from outside. We came in by way of the dining room however at the time we did not realize we had the option. Live and learn.

We sang our hello's to our little garden elf and we were in!

The garden oaks are scattered everywhere throughout the cottage' s garden. Looking soooo...happy!

Just look at all those leaves, loving spring all over again! I've lived in California since 1980. On my arrival in January of that year, I was overcome with joy.... NO SNOW. As the years passed, I've learned that we do not have eternal summer. Gardens awaken in the springtime and begin once again to grow. Winter is a time for garden sleeping.

I took this shot of a very green Cambria on our way out of town.

This is a photo of the Carrizo Plain National Monument off of Highway 166. The sign for the turn off is easy to miss. Yup, we did miss the turn. The turn off looks and is a narrow dirt road next to a very beat up gas station. It looks more like an entrance to a driveway. We had imagined something a bit fancier. We stopped here on our way to Cambria. What do you think of all that yellow?

04/08/2011

Today Storybook Cottage is linking over with the Link party for bloggers on "Follow Friday 40 and over!" and "You like Me Friday Blog Hop".

Storybook Cottage is a blog about a family vacation home in the Central Coast area of California. It will feature the little town of Cambria along with all of my other loves, vintage decorating, gardening, knitting, and oil painting. My children are grown and are now off on their own. The Storybook has become a meeting place for our family to gather for holidays and summer vacations. I hope you will leave a comment and subscribe to my blog. Hugs....

04/06/2011

Storybook Cottage is about all of my loves. Family, vintage decorating, creating art with paint, fabric and yarn, garden and animal love. This home had for may years been our dream and now it is a place for our grown children to come together and enjoy each other and their parents in the Central Coast area of California. Hugs...

Miss Jennie sends her love along to you as we join the UBP 2011 and please come back for more visits with us in the Storybook Cottage.